Month: January 2017

The Tuesday contest between Tri-County and Holton was a highly competitive battle, but unfortunately for the Vikings, they fell victim to their eleventh loss of the year in eleven games. After falling behind after the first quarter 13-12, the Vikings responded with a strong second quarter to take a 27-24 lead into the locker room. In the third quarter, they also outscored the Red Devils by three, to extend their lead through twenty-four minutes to 40-35. The fourth quarter was not as generous to the Vikings, as they mustered just ten points, and ended up falling by a score of 55-50. Leaders Tri County Holton Scoring: Kirkwood 16 Slowi 17 Rebounds: Jelinski 8 Giddings...

Photo courtesy of rockfordbasketball.com With the high school basketball season reaching its regular season halfway point this week, teams are starting to be recognized as contenders and pretenders. On Friday, two of the most puzzling cases met up in Kentwood, as the Falcons hosted the Rams of Rockford. East Kentwood entered the night with a 6-5 record, with five losses against top-tier teams, and most of the six wins coming against average talent. For Rockford, they were 3-8, with a majority of their losses against top tier teams and their three wins coming against average competition. Each team...

Photo courtesy of Mlive.com With just about two months remaining in the high school basketball season, just four of the forty-two OK Conference teams entered Saturday with unblemished records (also Godwin Heights and Muskegon). Two of them, Grand Rapids Christian and Grand Rapids Catholic Central, faced off on Saturday night. In a packed gym at Catholic Central for a game between two former City League foes, the two schools played an extremely physical game, but the talent on the Eagles roster (three Division I prospects) was too much in the end as Christian prevailed 66-28. In the first quarter, the Cougars...

The OK Red conference season is in full swing now as the teams are nearly wrapping up the first half of the conference season. Caledonia, led by head coach Phil Visser, faced two tough league opponents this week. Hudsonville is a team that is still somewhat figuring out where they stack up this season, as they entered Tuesday’s game at 5-4 with five wins against inferior opponents and four losses against tough teams. Although Rockford was 2-7 entering play Friday, they have played a daunting schedule so far, and their talent is far superior of a team five games below five hundred. Both of these teams earned big bounce back wins over Caledonia this week as detailed below. TUESDAY: HUDSONVILLE 81 CALEDONIA 45 On Tuesday in Caledonia, the Eagles put up their highest offensive numbers of the season as they snapped a two-game losing streak in OK Red play. Thanks to stingy defensive rebounding and unselfishness on the offensive end, Coach Eric Elliott’s team had this game in control from the start as they led 15-0 early. The Scots finally got on the board with two minutes left in the first quarter, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough as they trailed 25-8 after the first quarter. Brady Boothe paced the Eagles with fifteen first half points as eight different Eagles contributed to the scoring column in the first sixteen minutes. In the second half, it was much of...

After last week’s heartbreaking loss to Hudsonville, the Rams returned to the court Friday night for another OK Red contest as they hosted the West Ottawa Panthers. In the first quarter, Rockford struggled and they managed just five points, resulting in a twelve point deficit after the first eight minutes. Things never got better for Rockford, as they failed to reach double digits in the second or third quarter either. The Rams scored seven and eight points respectively in these quarters, and as a result they trailed 41-20 entering the final frame. Despite outscoring the Panthers by ten in the fourth quarter, Rockford still got knocked off by a score of 50-39 dropping them to 1-7 on the season and 0-2 in the OK Red. With the win, West Ottawa improved to 6-1 on the season, and they now sit at 2-0 in the OK Red. The Panthers were led by Tyler Bosma (twelve points), Nick Wehrmeyer (ten points), and Jake VanTubbergen (ten points). For Rockford, they got another strong effort from Ryan Gamm (eleven points), and they also had the highest scorer in the game in senior Jason Majerle (thirteen points). Next week, West Ottawa continues league play with a home game against Grand Haven on Tuesday, followed by a home matchup with East Kentwood on Friday. For Rockford, they will try to turn their season around as...